The growth of social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and MyYearBook.com, have made it increasingly easy to locate, segment, collect information on, and market to a particular audience. Blogging (i.e. WordPress, Blogger, Square Space), and micro blogging sites like Twitter, Posterous and tumblr have seen incremental growth in recent years as marketers utilize these platforms as a home base for their content (i.e. their message) to live. The ease of use and low cost of entry with chance of high return have raised marketer’s eyebrows across almost any type of industry. This is a good thing right? Well, let’s contemplate this for a second. Doesn’t low barrier to entry cause clutter? And if it does, doesn’t that mean marketers will end up paying more to weed out the noise to reach their audience?

The California Gold Rush

Let’s take a look back on history and compare today’s rush towards social media to the California Gold Rush of the mid 1880’s. James W. Marshall (Pictured below) first discovered gold at John Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. News of the discovery brought hundreds of thousands of people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.

As competition in the region grew between the miners, advances in technology were in high demand. These technological advances of course required capital. This increased the proportion between corporate miners and individuals miners. Gold that is worth billions of dollars today was recovered during this mad rush, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with little more than they had started with. Not to mention the years of harm caused to the environment from extensive mining.

Our Modern Day Pioneer

The lessons from the California Gold rush have a striking resemblance to today’s modern rush towards social media prominence. Our modern day pioneer is Mark Zuckerberg (Pictured above), founder of Facebook. Zuckerberg’s network much like the early days of the gold rush attracted marketers from around the globe. Similar to the miners today’s marketers are digging in Facebook for their gold – their consumers. The question still remains, “How much gold is left in Facebook for both individual and corporate marketers?” It seems as though the rush for gold is ever growing as marketers rush to find the next gold mine in their industry.

The Future of The Facebook Environment

What does this mean for the current Facebook environment? It means that the space has become more competitive and more expensive to penetrate. Marketers are now required to think outside of the box and are continually creating new technologies (i.e. Applications) and strategies within Facebook to generate an ROI. It will be interesting to watch the environmental impact of this rush. Will a majority of today’s marketers leave empty handed? And, will Facebook keep reproducing gold or will it be drained of its natural resources – its users. I guess we will all have to wait and see.